cleanmediatoday@gmail.com

News

Friday, 4 January 2013

Delhi gang-rape case: Chargesheet seeks death for 5 accused, leaves out minorClean Media CorrespondentNEW DELHI, Jan 03 (CMC) Seeking the maximum of death penalty for five of the Nirbhaya gang rape accused, police on Thursday charged them under various IPC sections, including murder and gang rape.In their bid to speed up the trial, police took the unusual step of filing the chargesheet without incorporating the victim's postmorterm report —the most crucial evidence in the case—as it is still to be received from Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where the 23-year-old paramedic had died.In the chargesheet filed before duty metropolitan magistrate Surya Malik Grover at 5.40pm, police named the accused as Ram Singh, Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur. They have also asked for the trial to be held in-camera to protect the identity of the girl.The sixth accused, a juvenile, was not named as his case is being heard by the Juvenile Justice Board. The 33-page chargesheet has annexures running into over 1,000 pages.The accused have also been charged with section 377 (unnatural sex), 201 (destruction of evidence), 307 (attempt to murder), 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent to secretly or wrongfully confine a person), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 395 (dacoity), 396 (dacoity with murder), 34 (common intention) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).Sources said criminal conspiracy has been added in the chargsheet as investigations have revealed that the crime was committed in a "pre-planned manner".In its 33-page chargesheet, with annexures running over 1,000 pages, police gave the statement of the victim, her male friend, their parents, police officers, CFSL officers, DNA reports and the statement of doctors at Safdarjung Hospital, where the girl was initially admitted.The postmorterm report will be filed later in a supplementary chargesheet. "We have not received the report from Singapore," Commissioner of Police Neeraj Kumar told CMC. Sources said the supplementary chargesheet will be filed within 10 days.With 50 prosecution witnesses listed in the chargesheet, police have given a detailed account of the crime committed by the six, the victim's treatment at Safdarjung followed by her journey to Singapore and her subsequent death on December 29.The chargesheet was filed by special public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan along with SHO (Vasant Vihar) Anil Sharma, who moved an application before the court urging it to keep the document in a sealed cover to protect the identity of the victim and asked for the proceedings to be held in-camera. Rajiv Mohan, who appears in all the terror related cases for Delhi Police, will appear along with Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan during the trial.The court has posted the matter for hearing on January 5 before the area magistrate, who is expected to commit it to the sessions court for trial. During the hearing, Mohan said that the police will file an e-challan in a couple of days with the other remaining documents.Among the important evidence, the chargesheet has statements of both victims recorded under section 164 of CrPC. It also has the statement of their parents, five doctors of Safdarjung Hospital and two doctors at Mount Elizabeth Hospital (recorded by the investigating officer on December 29).The CCTV footage of Hotel Delhi 37, which shows bus (DL1PB-0149) on the move on December 16, is also part of the chargesheet.Other documents include statement of bus owner Dinesh Yadav, papers showing recovery of mobile phones of the victims from the accused, their ATM cards, the iron rod used to hit the victims and other forensic evidence. Mohan later told reporters that the DNA report had established the involvement of all the accused in the crime.Having filed the chargesheet within 18 days of the incident, Neeraj Kumar said he was happy with the outcome. "We are more than satisfied. We have a very strong case. Our chargesheet spells out the efforts made by the investigation team and arrests made in the case," he said.According to sources, the chargesheet says the five accused "were on a joyride, which started in the evening itself and they were in a mood to harm people on December 16, 2012"."Being a Sunday, main accused Ram Singh and his helper, Akshay Thakur alias Bihari, had a small party along with the former's younger brother Mukesh (a driver-cum-helper). They decided to go for a joyride and have fun while picking some extra bucks from giving lift to people so that more drinks could be bought. The helper Akshay then took out the vehicle and Vinay, Pawan and a juvenile joined them for the bus ride. They left with Mukesh driving the bus," said a source quoting from the document."At the Munirka bus stand, they called out to collect passengers and the couple boarded it. The accused charged them Rs 20 (Rs 10 each) as fare. They passed comments on the girl, to which her male friend objected. They (accused) picked up a fight and the boy was hit on his head with an iron rod. The girl also fought with them to save her friend but was hit," says the chargesheet, according to sources."They (accused) were enraged and dragged the girl to a backseat where they sexually assaulted her, while two of them caught hold of the male friend near the driver's seat," it adds. The chargesheet, sources said, states that the girl was assaulted for more than 30 minutes before both victims were dumped around 10.15pm at NH-8, near the Mahipalpur flyover.